Office of the Bishop Diocese of El Paso Catholic Pastoral Center February 16, 2019 Dear former Peace Corps Volunteers: My cousin, Patricia Silke Edmisten, a former Peace Corps Volunteer (Peru 1962-64), suggested I write you. I presently serve as the Catholic Bishop of El Paso in Texas. Without doubt you have been attuned in recent months to news about the large number of asylum-seekers we are witnessing presently seeking refuge in the United States. It seems that the El Paso region has become a major crossing point along the 2,000 mile border our country shares with Mexico. El Paso has always been a place of encounter and of passage as our very name suggests, but the numbers of families, many with young children, we are witnessing are considerably higher than in the past. The majority are fleeing unendurable levels of violence, instability and the resulting economic collapse . . .